Welcome to the Batters Box top 30 Blue Jay prospects for 2013. Five of your trusted minor league correspondents pooled their votes to come up with the list. The same trusty five shared the task of writing the prospect descriptions you see below.
The system has seen a lot of movement since 2012. Travis d'Arnuad, Noah Syndergaard, Jake Marisnick, Adeiny Hechavarria, Justin Nicolino and Sam Dyson were traded. Five of last years top six prospects were moved to get that extra win from the major league team.
In total, forty prospects received at least one vote. Twenty three of the top thirty were named on all five ballots. There was plenty of agreement over who the top twenty prospects were, in name at least. After those top 20 there are a mixture of players at AAA who might or might not get more than a cup of coffee in the major leagues and on the other side there are a ton of kids in the lower levels who haven't shown much yet. Do you value Deck McGuire or Ryan Goins higher than Jacob Brentz or LB Dantzler? The former will probably play a limited role in the major leagues, the latter could develop into all-stars or they could flame out.
As usual we have split the top 30 into three installments, running Monday through Wednesday.
We hope you enjoy the list and the discussion.
Me, ten days ago. That worked out well.
With all but two teams eliminated the chatter among general managers is picking up. Most GM's say that after the season they take a few weeks to work through their needs and then identify possible trade matches with other teams. The resulting discussions are being kicked off now to be continued at the general manager meetings to be held November 11-13 in Orlando. And followed by the winter meetings, December 9-12.
Today Bob Elliott kicks off the rumour mill with catching news.
Take it away, Mike....
What's in it for me?
It's time for another "you be the general manager". The consensus last week was not to offer Josh Johnson a qualifying offer. That leaves a gap in the 2014 rotation. You, as the GM, have to go in search of replacement starting pitchers. We all know that the pitching market is thin and good starters are very, very valuable. However, after much searching and negotiating, you have been able to line up a trade for a quality starting pitcher, one who will slip into the Blue Jays rotation as their #2 starter.
There is a catch, what the other team wants in return.
The Jays have announced coaching changes for 2014. In case you have erased it from your memory, the Jays starters had a terrible year while the hitters were OK when they were not injured.
So, the Jays have changed the hitting side of the coaching staff and retained the pitching coaches.
This is the first of a few "you be the general manager" questions we can debate over the next few weeks. Today's subject is Josh Johnson. News came out today that Josh has just had surgery on his elbow to remove bone spurs. The Jays have until just after the world series to decide whether to offer Johnson a qualifying offer. That basically means Johnson will earn approx. $14M next season.
The Jays originally intended to have Johsnon get healthy right around now and then for them to watch him throw to evaluate whether to offer to re-sign him. This surgery now eliminates that approach by the Jays.
The story suggests James Andrews saying that the bone spurs were the reason JJ didn't pitch well this year. Do we believe that or is JJ's agent trying to talk up his client for more money?




